For two years the U.S. has blamed Russia for sabotaging the Nordstream 2 pipeline, though observers have repeatedly said that makes no sense as it was a major source of cash for Russia and, if Russia wanted to stop sending petrol to Germany, it could have just stopped pumping it into the pipeline at any time.
The Wall Street Journal, two hours ago, dropped a story confirming what was long thought: Ukraine destroyed the Nordstream 2 pipeline and the U.S. Government has spent the last two years pumping out lie after lie to the slack-jawed, doe-eyed public, getting them ginned-up for war and genocide.
The Journal spoke to four senior Ukrainian defense and security officials who either participated in or had direct knowledge of the plot. All of them said the pipelines were a legitimate target in Ukraine’s war of defense against Russia.
Portions of their account were corroborated by a nearly two-year German police investigation into the attack, which has obtained evidence including email, mobile and satellite phones communications, as well as fingerprints and DNA samples from the alleged sabotage team. The Germany inquiry hasn’t directly linked President Zelensky to the clandestine operation.
In June, Germany’s federal prosecutor quietly issued the first arrest warrant in the case for a Ukrainian professional diving instructor for his alleged involvement in the sabotage. The German investigation is now focusing on Zaluzhniy and his aides, people familiar with the probe say, although they have no evidence that could be presented in court.
The findings could upend relations between Kyiv and Berlin, which has provided much of the financing and military equipment to Ukraine, second only to the U.S. Some German political leaders may have been willing to overlook evidence pointing to Ukraine for fear of undermining domestic support for the war effort. But German police are politically independent and their investigation took on a life of its own as they pursued one lead after another.
The Germans are noting that, given the devastation this caused on the German economy, an attack on critical infrastructure of this nature should trigger Article V of the Atlantic Treaty and NATO should promptly launch a military retaliation against Ukraine.
“An attack of this scale is a sufficient reason to trigger the collective defense clause of NATO, but our critical infrastructure was blown up by a country that we support with massive weapons shipments and billions in cash,” said a senior German official familiar with the probe.
Why did anyone ever believe the U.S. Government when it started pumping out its lies about Russia blowing up the pipeline, particularly given they were so weird and the U.S. Government has a track-record of lying? Maybe it's time to rethink all the other things you've been told and ruminate on whether or not those are lies, too?
Fool me once, shame one you, fool me 178 times ...
Re: Wall Street Journal Breaks Nordstream 2 Story
Posted: Wed Aug 14, 2024 10:33 pm
by saxitoxin
This is also an amazing testament to the independence and professionalism of the Bundeskriminalamt. Had this been the FBI or RCMP or Met Special Branch the investigation would have never occurred and any evidence relating to it would have been classified for 100 years. Ironically, the Germany of 2024 actually has a professional and functioning criminal investigations service, unlike the Anglosphere which merely has secret police forces.
In June, German officials issued a confidential arrest warrant for a Ukrainian citizen who the Germans believe was one of the crew members. According to people familiar with the investigation, a van driving the Ukrainian sabotage team from Poland into Germany in 2022 was snapped by a German speed camera, and the man, a diving instructor living with his family near Warsaw, was in the photo.
Authorities in Poland didn’t act on the warrant. The instructor is believed to have since returned to Ukraine. Poland’s failure to arrest him is a major blow to the German probe, because he and other suspects have now been tipped off and will avoid travelling outside Ukraine, people familiar with the investigation said. Ukraine doesn’t extradite its own citizens.
....meanwhile, Russian civilians are welcoming Ukrainian military units.
Russian soldiers surrender without firing a single bullet.
Ukraine launches attacks deep into Russia, hitting airfields and energy facilities.
SLAVA UKRAINE!
Re: Wall Street Journal Breaks Nordstream 2 Story
Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2024 11:38 am
by bigtoughralf
It always baffles me that any Brit or American old enough to remember Bush and Blair lying about Saddam having WMDs can continue to trust that their government can always be believed when it accuses its stated enemies of doing something wrong.
Re: Wall Street Journal Breaks Nordstream 2 Story
Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2024 12:40 pm
by saxitoxin
bigtoughralf wrote:It always baffles me that any Brit or American old enough to remember Bush and Blair lying about Saddam having WMDs can continue to trust that their government can always be believed when it accuses its stated enemies of doing something wrong.
there's a sucker born every minute (see: post above yours)
Re: Wall Street Journal Breaks Nordstream 2 Story
Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2024 3:28 pm
by Pack Rat
...says the Russian apologists
Re: Wall Street Journal Breaks Nordstream 2 Story
Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2024 6:30 pm
by Dukasaur
Nice surgical stike! Has deprived Putin of billions in hard currency. Will go down in history with the exploits of the dambusters.
Re: Wall Street Journal Breaks Nordstream 2 Story
Posted: Fri Aug 16, 2024 8:04 am
by HitRed
So why didn’t the Ukrainians take out the Russian pipeline going through Ukraine? Still operational.
Re: Wall Street Journal Breaks Nordstream 2 Story
Posted: Fri Aug 16, 2024 9:47 am
by saxitoxin
Dukasaur wrote:Nice surgical stike! Has deprived Putin of billions in hard currency.
Deprived elderly German pensioners of heat during the Bavarian winter, too. And deprived working class Germans of $2 billion in higher home heating prices. So win-win if you're on the side of mega-corporations and their executives.
And turned Germany into America's little bitch boy that gets spanked anytime it doesn't do exactly what daddy says ...
German gas industry group Zukunft Gas has slammed the White House's decision to "pause" new US LNG export permits, saying the move would have a particularly negative effect on the market. Germany has turned to LNG -- with three floating import terminals already operational and three more set to be deployed in the coming months -- to replace lost Russian pipeline gas. The US has been the dominant LNG supplier to Germany since the first terminal came online at the end of 2022, with US LNG deliveries totaling 4.1 million mt last year, or 82% of total imports, S&P Global Commodity Insights data showed.
You should be more concerned about Russia. The corruption, canon fodder of poorly trained soldiers with ancient and broken equipment, declining birth rates and exodus of their brightest minds.
Plus the fact that a small country like Ukraine has now invaded your mother Russia!
Re: Wall Street Journal Breaks Nordstream 2 Story
Posted: Fri Aug 16, 2024 5:35 pm
by Dukasaur
saxitoxin wrote:
Dukasaur wrote:Nice surgical stike! Has deprived Putin of billions in hard currency.
Deprived elderly German pensioners of heat during the Bavarian winter, too. And deprived working class Germans of $2 billion in higher home heating prices. So win-win if you're on the side of mega-corporations and their executives.
And turned Germany into America's little bitch boy that gets spanked anytime it doesn't do exactly what daddy says ...
German gas industry group Zukunft Gas has slammed the White House's decision to "pause" new US LNG export permits, saying the move would have a particularly negative effect on the market. Germany has turned to LNG -- with three floating import terminals already operational and three more set to be deployed in the coming months -- to replace lost Russian pipeline gas. The US has been the dominant LNG supplier to Germany since the first terminal came online at the end of 2022, with US LNG deliveries totaling 4.1 million mt last year, or 82% of total imports, S&P Global Commodity Insights data showed.
Yeah, I didn't like that part either. Still, a small price to pay.
And on the plus side, it has really accelerated Germany's construction in renewables.
Re: Wall Street Journal Breaks Nordstream 2 Story
Posted: Fri Aug 16, 2024 6:25 pm
by HitRed
I think the Whitehouse meant to hurt Texas.
Re: Wall Street Journal Breaks Nordstream 2 Story
Posted: Fri Aug 16, 2024 6:53 pm
by saxitoxin
Dukasaur wrote:Yeah, I didn't like that part either. Still, a small price to pay.
Easy to say when someone else is paying it.
2022: Energy Crisis in Germany Threatens to Push Thousands into Poverty https://borgenproject.org/energy-crisis-in-germany/
2023: Invisible poverty: homelessness is on the rise in Germany https://www.euronews.com/2023/12/21/invisible-poverty-homelessness-is-on-the-rise-in-germany
2024: Child poverty in Germany reaches record high https://www.dw.com/en/child-poverty-in-germany-reaches-record-high/video-68675022
Re: Wall Street Journal Breaks Nordstream 2 Story
Posted: Sat Aug 17, 2024 8:37 am
by saxitoxin
Germany today announced the termination of all new military aid to Ukraine beyond what has already been committed. Germany had been the country's second-biggest supplier.
Simultaneously, the Federal Criminal Police have issued an All-EU arrest warrant for Zelenskyy confidante Vladimir Zhuravlev on suspicion of terrorism in connection with Nordstream 2. The now-fugitive Zhuravlev is believed to be in Kiev.
Re: Wall Street Journal Breaks Nordstream 2 Story
Posted: Sat Aug 17, 2024 10:36 am
by Pack Rat
Hurray for Ukraine!
Slava Ukraine!
Hit Russia and destroy their corrupt oligarch regime. Let Putin go down in history, as the worse inept dictactorship in Russian history.
Re: Wall Street Journal Breaks Nordstream 2 Story
Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2024 6:46 pm
by Dukasaur
saxitoxin wrote:
Dukasaur wrote:Yeah, I didn't like that part either. Still, a small price to pay.
Easy to say when someone else is paying it.
It's war. Most people now admit that WWII would never have happened if the world had reacted vigorously when Hitler rearmed the Rhineland, or annexed Austria, or annexed the Sudetenland. Putin's annexation of Crimea was the equivalent of Hitler's annexation of Austria. Putin's annexation of the Donbass is the equivalent of Hitler's annexation of the Sudetenland. It's our last chance to stop him before he rolls out in full force and we're faced with WW III.
It might not be cheap.
There are brave men in the Ukraine standing in the trenches paying the cost of this war with their lives. Forgive me if I don't get too broken up that a few fatcats is Dusseldorf have to pay a little extra on their utilities while they nibble their Khase-Sahn Torte.
Re: Wall Street Journal Breaks Nordstream 2 Story
Posted: Mon Aug 19, 2024 4:45 am
by bigtoughralf
In the UK (for example) the embargo on Russian gas and oil caused gas prices to go up to 10-15x, meaning household heating costs and the price of food production ballooned. When things like that happen it's not 'fat cats' who end up having to decide between keeping their house a safe temperature during winter or giving everyone in their household three meals a day, it's poorer people.
And ultimately Russia just started selling its gas and oil to China instead and seems to have gotten through it just fine, so Europe basically cut off its nose to spite no one.
Re: Wall Street Journal Breaks Nordstream 2 Story
Posted: Mon Aug 19, 2024 5:25 am
by bigtoughralf
It all stems from Europe's lack of willingness to wean itself off military and financial dependency on the US, leaving it in a position where it has to do whatever the US tells it and has to let the US do whatever it likes without any serious pushback (even when the US does things the EU really doesn't like).
If the EU was more independent it could have a) done more to prevent the US instigating in Ukraine in the 2010s*, and b) responded to any Russia-Ukraine conflict in a more productive/less self-harming way. Instead it just sat there and let the US play toy soldiers on its doorstep.
*the Ukrainian government did a lot of damage to itself by aggressively suppressing what were initially very small protests, but US politicians piling in to support the protests including via in-person visits made the political fallout much worse than it needed to be
Re: Wall Street Journal Breaks Nordstream 2 Story
Posted: Mon Aug 19, 2024 7:14 am
by saxitoxin
The leader of AfD is now calling on Ukraine to repay Germany the $12 billion it cost to build Nordstream 2, plus undetermined costs to compensate German electrical ratepayers.
Obviously, the German government isn't going to do that.
But Bundestag elections -- which AfD is already polling in the #2 position out of 9 parties -- are in less than a year and the average German paying $2000/year more in home heating costs isn't as ideologically committed to Russophobia as Duk.
Meanwhile, some German newspapers are calling for defense minister Boris Pistorius to be investigated by the Federal Criminal Police and run up on charges of treason if he knew about the Ukrainian attack and continued greenlighting aid to the enemy state (Ukraine) anyway.
The costs to prevent Russia from eating up democracies in Europe is well worth it! NATO is now stronger and larger! NATO no longer can be blackmailed by Russia.
Ukraine has proved that corruption has polluted the Russian government and military. Putin is responsible for making Russia look like a third rate power and enriching his oligarch allies.
It's up to ordinary Russians to overthrow Putin and his murderous regime.
Posted: Wed Aug 14, 2024 10:15 pm